Mr. Belasco's
Sophomore Vocabulary Words
Last Updated on
1 March, 2006
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| 1. Assuage |
(v) to make easier or milder; relieve |
| 2. Banal |
(adj) hackneyed; trite; commonplace |
| 3. Coherent |
(adj) holding or sticking together; making a
logical whole |
| 4. Lax |
(adj.) loose; not strict |
| 5. Epiphany |
(n.)a realization that changes one's life; a flash of thought |
| 6. Colloquy |
(n) a conversation, especially
a formal discussion; conference |
| 7. Ostracize |
(v) to bar; exclude |
| 8. hubris |
(n) excessive pride or self confidence that brings
down the wrath of the gods. |
| 9. Antithesis |
(n) the exact opposite |
| 10. Frumpy |
dull, plain, and unfashionably
dressed; said of
girls or women. |
| 11.Clarion |
Brilliantly clear; also, loud and clear |
| 12. Connoisseur |
(n) expert; especially one who understands the details techniques or principles
of an art and is competent to judge. |
| 13. Incognito |
(adj). with true identity unrevealed; or disguised. |
| 14. Unctuous |
(adj.) Excessively smooth or smug; trying to hard to be sincere |
| 15. Frugal |
(adj.)characterized by or reflecting economy in the
use of resources |
| 16. Villous |
(adj.) Shaggy Haired |
| 17apercu |
(n.) a short synopsis |
| 18. Urbane |
(adj.) Suave; refined, elegant and sophisticated; suave |
| 19. entice |
(v) To attract by arousing hope or desire; lure |
| 20. Feign |
a. (v) To give a false appearance of: feign sleep.
b. (v)To represent falsely; pretend to: feign authorship of a novel. |
| 21. Corpulent |
(adj.) Very fat; obese |
| 22. Foible |
(n.) Weakness; frailty |
| 23. Gregarious |
(adj) tending to move or form in a heard; social; enjoying the company
of others |
| 24. Prerogative |
(n) a special right or privilege |
| 25. ebb |
(v) to recede; to decline |
| 26. Nepotism |
(n) Unwarranted favoritism shown to relatives or friends by someone
in high office |
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| 27. Construe |
(v) to analyze, explain, interpret, understand |
| 28. Audacity |
(adj). Fearless daring; intrepidity |
| 29. penultimate |
(n) the next to last |
| 30. Laconic |
(adj.) not talkative; terse; concise |
| 31. Hoyden |
(n) a boisterous carefree girl; tomboy |
| 32. Sangfroid |
(adj.)calmness in the face of danger |
| 33. dour |
(adj.) Gloomy, stern; obstinate |
| 34. pragmatic |
(adj.) treating things or making decisions from a logical point of view
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| 35. kismet |
(n) fate; destiny |
| 36 tchotchke |
(n) KnickKnack; items which clutter your shelves |
| 37. Venial |
(adj.) of a fault or sin; pardonable |
| 38. rankle |
(v) 1. To cause persistent irritation or resentment.
2. To become sore or inflamed; fester. |
| 39. quixotic |
(adj.) 2. Capricious; impulsive |
| 40. ephemeral |
(adj.) Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects
d |
| 41.dastard |
(n) a despicable coward |
| 42. cacography |
(n) bad handwriting; incorrect spelling -- you know who you are |
| 43. paradigm |
(n) a variable quantity of quality that restricts or gives a particular
form to the thing it characterizes |
| 44 Equivocal |
(adj) able to be interpreted in two different ways |
| 45.svelte |
(adj)of a person or figure slender and graceful |
| 46. kitsch |
(n) pretentiousness and lack of good taste in art |
| 47. Surcease |
(n) end; cessation |
| 48. Limpid |
(adj.) of a liquid, the atmosphere, or literary style clear, lucid, transparent |
| 49.bogus |
(adj.) Counterfeit or fake; not genuine |
| 50. Capitulate |
(v) surrender under agreed conditions |
| 51. harangue |
(n) a long emotional public address designed to arouse feelings; (v) to
deliver a harangue |
| 52.floccinaucinihilipilification |
(n) an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial |
| 53. Flay |
(v) to remove the skin or outer covering |
| 54.Stentorian |
(adj.) extremely loud, booming. (n) Loud speaking voice |
| 55. gambit |
(n) a maneuver especially in conversation that is intended to secure an
advantage |
| 56. Sonorous |
(adj.) Having or producing a full, deep, or rich sound |
| 57. Dutiful |
(adj.) Expressing or filled with a sense of obligation. |
| 58. picayune |
(adj.) trifling and petty or mean |
| 59 Congenital |
(adj.) of a disease or physical defect existing from birth |
| 60. Raffish |
(adj.) gaudily vulgar or cheap; tawdry |
| 61. Neonatal |
(adj.) of or relating to a newborn child |
| 62. Fratricide |
(n) The act of killing one's brother (or sister) |
| 63. Esoteric |
(adj) intended only for people with a special knowledge |
| 64. incredulous |
(adj.) showing disbelief or showing doubt |
| 65. Wunderkind |
(n) a child prodigy or one who achieves incredible success at an early
age |
| 66. obliterate |
(v) to remove utterly from recognition; to remove from existence |
| 67. homage |
(n) an expression of high regard; respect |
| 68. druthers |
(n) free choice; preference |
| 69. deus ex machina |
(n) a god introduced by a crane to unravel the plot or Any active agent
who appears unexpectedly to solve a problem |
| 70. pathos |
(n) in literature, speech; a quality that arouses pity or sadness |
| 71. Milieu |
(n) environment; setting |
| 72. quagmire |
(n) a difficult or precarious situation from which extraction is almost
imposible |
| 73. gauche |
(adj.) Lacking social polish; tactless |
| 74. gelid |
(adj) Very cold; icy: gelid ocean waters |
| 75. toothsome |
(adj.)Delicious; luscious: a toothsome pie. Pleasant; attractive: |
| 76. transient |
(adj.)Passing with time; transitory: “the transient beauty of youth”
( |
| 77. cache |
(n)A store of goods or valuables concealed in a hiding place |
| 78. accoutrement |
(n)An accessory item of equipment or dress. Often used in the plural |
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